Exhaust combustion chamber



July 19, 1966 H. c. SAWYER EXHAUST COMBUSTION CHAMBER Filed Aug. 31, 1964 INVENTOR.

HOW/JED C. SA WYL'R BY 3Y2; 000000 000000 wmwwww mmm ATTORNEY United States Patent O 3,261,161 EXHAUST COMBUSTION CHAMBER Howard C. Sawyer, Detroit, Mich., assignor to Howard R. Ward, Inc., a corporation of Ohio Filed Aug. 31, 1964, Ser. No. 393,822 7 Claims. (Cl. 60-30) This invention relates to devices for averting the escape from internal combustion engines of noxious gases into the atmosphere, and particularly to such devices as eifect this end by burning said gases before they are emitted into the atmosphere by such engines.

An object of the invention is to provide a combustion chamber, disposed externally of the engine, and to provide a passage from the exhaust ports of an engine to said chamber to afford a directed flow of exhaust gases to said chamber, and to provide means to admit atmosphere to form a mixture with said gases, and an ignition means to ignite said mixture.

Another object is to provide a perforated area in said passage, and to provide a closure about, and spaced from said perforated area to receive said atmosphere and to resist escape of such atmosphere therefrom, except through said perforations and to further provide means to conduct such atmosphere through said closure.

Still another object is to predetermined-1y space said perforations to afford a substantially uniform mixture of atmosphere with said gases.

Another object is to predetermine the area of each perforation and the number of such perforations so that their total area is substantially equal to the cross-sectional area of said passage.

These and various other objects are attained by the construction hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal, sectional view of my improved device.

FIG. 2 is a view, in cross-section, on line 22 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a view, in cross-section, on line 3--3 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a view, in cross-section, on line 4-4 of FIG. 1, through said perforated area.

In these views, the reference character 1 designates the combustion chamber, which is illustrated as having a cylindricalwall 2. End walls 3 and 4 are welded or otherwise secured to the ends of the cylinder 2. Prior to so applying said end walls, an insulating liner 5 may be inserted in the construction. An inlet member 6 and an outlet member 7 are positioned at the respective end portions of the liner.

The actual combustion preliminarily occurs mainly in annulus 8 proximate inlet member 6 and continues in annuli 9 in a helically, spiral passageway formed by helical baflie elements 10 formed interiorly of said annuli 9. Recesses, such as shown in 11 in the annuli 9, receive lugs 12, on neighboring annuli 9, to resist rotational displacement of the annuli relative to one another and so that the helical passageway through the annuli 9 is maintained, even under conditions of considerable vibration. It may be desirable to make the inlet and outlet members 6 and 7 and the annuli 8 and 9 of refractory material, due to the intense heat generated during combustion.

At the wall 3 and outlet end of the combustion chamher 1 there may be a take off pipe '13 to conduct the burned and now harmless gases to the atmosphere.

At the inlet end of the combustion chamber 1 there is secured, as to the end wall 4 by welding or other suitable means, a double-walled conduit 145, having outer wall 14 and inner wall 15. Such walls 14 and 15 may be annular in cross-section and are preferably concentric. A receptacle for an igniter (not shown) is disposed at 16.

3,261,161 Patented July 19, 1966 Such igniter may be in the nature of a spark plug whose gap end extends into or communicates with passage through the conduit 15. At the end (not shown) of the conduit 15 remote from its connection 'with the combustion chamber 1, the conduit 15 receives exhaust gases from exhaust ports of an internal combustion engine (not shown).

Between parallel spaced, annular walls 17, disposed transversely to the longitudinal axis of the double walled conduit 145, is an atmosphere admission section 18. The inner wall 15 of such section is formed with a plu-' rality of perforations 19. Such perforations occur unitformly over the entire periphery of said inner wall. An induction pipe 20 opens through the outer wall 14, to carry atmosphere to the perforated section 18.

It is contemplated to have a pump or the like (not shown) or any suitable source of atmosphere under pressure to insure a positive flow of atmosphere through the pipe 20 at a pressure sufiicient to overcome any tendency of exhaust gases to flow out through said perforations 19 and pipe 20. The aforesaid arrangement allows a substantially uniform admission of atmosphere to commingle with said exhaust gases and, upon ignition, aiford combustion thereof.

It has been determined that best results are obtained when the combined areas of the perforations 19 equal substantially the cross-sectional area of the conduit -15.

It will be observed that the inlet opening 21 in the inlet member 6, is so tapered as to constrict said opening as it communicates with combustion chamber 1. This forces a compression of gases, which are beginning to burn, causing them to spurt into the combustion chamher 1 where the main burning takes place in annulus 8. The Spurting efl'ect thus produced increases the rate of combustion in the initial portion of the chamber 1.

The outlet opening 22, in outlet member 7, may be similarly constructed to retard escape of the gases so that thorough combustion may be assured. Communication with said outlet opening 22 maybe had from the annuli 9 through an unbaflled annulus 2.3 having much of the same form as the lead annulus 8 within the combustion chamber 1.

' What I claim is:

1. The combination with an internal combustion engine having exhaust ports of (a) a combustion chamber disposed internally of such engine to accept and burn exhaust gases expelled through said ports, said chamber being formed with an inlet and an outlet,

(1)) mean-s communicating between said exhaust ports and said inlet to afford a directed flow of said exhaust gases to said chamber,

(0) admission means in said communicating means (b) to introduce atmosphere into said flow of gases, said admission means being adapted to eiiect a substantially uniform mixture of atmosphere with said gases,

((1) ignition means in said communicating means to ignite said mixture, so that combustion initiates at said inlet and continues in said chamber, said inlet being formed to impede said flow as ignition initiates and creates back pressure of burning and expanding gases, so that such gases spurt into the combustion chamber (a), said chamber being adapted to afford expansion of said gases as combustion continues.

2. 'The combination as set forth in claim 1, said outlet being adapted to impede the escape of burned mixture from the combustion chamber to aiiord maximum combustion of said mixture.

3. The combination as set forth in claim 1, said admission means (c) including 3 (e) a distribution element in said communicating means (=b) having an area formed'with a plurality of perforations through which atmosphere may be admitted to comingle with said gases, and

(f) means communicating with said perforations t conduct atmosphere thereto.

4. The combination as set forth in claim 3, (g) a closure enclosing said perforated area to resist escape of atmosphere other than through said perforations, and said means (f) conducting atmosphere through said closure.

5. The combination as set forth in claim 1, said admission means including a distribution element (e) having a Wall (f) formed with perforations opening into said passage, and a closur (g) enclosing and spaced exteriorly from said Wall, and means to conduct a flow of atmosphere through said closure for admission through said perforations to said flow of gases.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,605,484 11/1926 Thompson. 2,174,626 10/1939 'Fogas 60- -3O MARK NEWMAN, Primary Examiner.

RALPH D. BLAKESLEE, Examiner. 

1. THE COMBINATION WITH AN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE HAVING EXHAUST PORTS OF (A) A COMBUSTION CHAMBER DISPOSED INTERNALLY OF SUCH ENGINE TO ACCEPT AND BURN EXHAUST GASES EXPELLED THROUGH SAID PORTS, SAID CHAMBER BEING FORMED WITH AN INLET AND AN OUTLET, (B) MEANS COMMUNICATING BETWEEN SAID EXHAUST PORTS AND SAID TO AFFORD A DIRECTED FLOW OF SAID EXHAUST GASES TO SAID CHAMBER, (C) ADMISSION MEANS IN SAID COMMUNICATING MEANS (B) TO INTRODUCE ATMOSPHERE INTO SAID FLOW OF GASES, SAID ADMISSION BEING ADAPTED TO EFFECT A SUBSTANTIALLY UNIFORM MIXTURE OF ATMOSPHERE WITH SAID GASES, (D) IGNITION MEANS IN SAID COMMUNICATING MEANS TO IGNITE SAID MIXTURE, SO THAT COMBUSTION INITIATES AT SAID INLET AND CONTINUES IN SAID CHAMBER, SAID INDLET BEING FORMED TO IMPEDE SAID FLOT AS IGNITION INITIATES AND CREATES BACK PRESSURE OF BURNING AND EXPANDING GASES, SO THAT SUCH GASES SPURT INTO THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER (A), SAID CHAMBER BEING ADAPTED TO AFFORD EXPANSION OF SAID GASES AS COMBUSTION CONTINUES. 